For only the second time in its history, the Faculty Association of California Community Colleges (FACCC) Board of Governors unanimously issued a vote of no confidence in the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office.
Chancellor Eloy Ortiz OakleyFACCC’s vote on Chancellor Eloy Ortiz Oakley’s administration stems from the office’s “lack of transparency, disregard for shared governance, lack of prior consultation with faculty and other stakeholders on major initiatives, deficient oversight and fiscal accountability with the online college, and administration of a punitive funding formula that has created a system of winners and losers,” FACCC said in a statement.
“The faculty have attempted to offer their input and expertise to the Chancellor’s Office, but efforts have been largely ignored,” said FACCC president Adam Wetsman in a statement. “Rather than engage us early in policy conversations, faculty have been forced to react to an onslaught of initiatives that haven’t moved the needle for our students. This prescriptive approach has been detrimental to our colleges, as we can see with the chaotic rollout of the funding formula and online college.”
FACCC said that, despite its no confidence vote, the association will continue to advocate for the support and success of students enrolled at the existing 114 community colleges in the system.
Tom Epstein, president of the California Community Colleges Board of Governors, said in a statement that, under Chancellor Oakley’s leadership, the California Community Colleges system is “committed to reforms enacted in recent years by strong bipartisan majorities in the legislature.” He called on faculty groups to continue sharing their views with the Chancellor Office’s.
“Legislatively mandated programs creating clear academic pathways for students, eliminating unfair placement tests, revising the funding formula and launching a new online college for adult workers challenge the status quo and drive innovation with the urgency that is necessary,” Epstein said. “The faculty’s input and active engagement is vital to the creation and execution of a strategy that will provide our students with the excellent education and job training they deserve.”
